Residents who are loading trash in their recycling bins or not following the schedule for brush collection should expect to be fined.

The city is ramping up its litter enforcement and education effort fueled by local environmental groups and residents fed up with plastic bag litter.

The plan was outlined Thursday during a meeting between about 30 city staff members, retailers and environmentalists aimed at getting input about ways to encourage people to stop littering, particularly plastic bags. It was the second meeting with stakeholders that will shape a yearlong campaign to kickoff Aug. 1.

Mayor Joe Adame urged the group to take ownership of the problem because he doesn't believe government regulation is the answer.

"It's not the plastic bags," he said. "It's the change of the culture, and I think we have the right ingredients in this room where we can start to change the culture."

The plastic bag discussion began earlier this year after the Coastal Bend Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation launched a local Skip the Plastic initiative and asked the City Council to enact a $1 per transaction fee for plastic bags.

Several cities have approved ordinances aimed at reducing plastic bags in their community. The proposed Corpus Christi ordinance was modeled after one in Brownsville, the first city in the state to charge a fee for plastic bags. Austin most recently approved a plastic bag ban, which is expected to begin in March.

Last month the Corpus Christi City Council asked staff to launch a more aggressive litter enforcement and education campaign that would be monitored for a year.

City staff have asked local retailers and other community groups to educate their employees, customers and the public about litter. If there isn't a substantial difference in the problem a year from now, then staff will propose more aggressive efforts, including a bag fee, Assistant City Manager Oscar Martinez said.

Taxpayers spend about $180,000 a year cleaning up littered plastic bags. Trash counts made by volunteers show that plastic bags are the third most littered item in Corpus Christi, and activists have focused on them because they are the most visible.

The city recycling program does include plastic bags, but there is no market for them right now. Republic Services, the contractor that operates the city's recycling and trash services, has a stockpile of 180 tons of plastic film and collects another 1.5 tons each day. The problem is the plastic film gets dirty through processing, which devalues its worth at market.

"They are ready to be shipped with no place to go,"said Bob Bradley, general manager for Republic Services.

Representatives from H-E-B, Stripes and Walmart along with retail lobbying groups American Plastic Bag Alliance and Texas Food and Fuel Association attended the meeting. Members of the Sierra Club and local chapter Surfrider Foundation also attended, along with representatives of various city committees, the local realtors association and the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

H-E-B spokeswoman Regina Garcia-Posada said local stores have plastic bag recycling bins, signs in the parking lot that remind customers to bring their reusable bags and a $25 gift card drawing for those who do. The company is about to roll out an enhanced education campaign, although she did not elaborate.

A Walmart representative said store managers are required to circle their buildings to retrieve plastic bags and are planning to incorporate reusable bags into the checkout carousel used for bagging.

Stripes has previously said the plastic bag fee in Brownsville prompted them quit supplying plastic bags and instead offer only paper. It's been an inconvenience to customers, a company official has said.

The local Surfrider Foundation chapter has proposed an ordinance that requires $1 fee per transaction from customers who opt to use plastic bags. Most of the money collected would be spent on litter cleanups and education. The program has been successful in Brownsville, city staff and residents there have said.

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